Return of the World Music Thread: 2012

Fendika are appearing for free in W. DC at the Kennedy Ctr Mill. Stage from 6 to 7 US eastern time tonight. I'm gonna be writing and will miss 'em this time. However, Millennium stage shows are video-streamed and archived on the Kennedy center website so if anyone wants to check out these Ethiopian women singers and dancers live online they can.

got a link? I'd like to share this with some people.

They will post the specific streaming and archive link beginning at 6 pm US eastern time here:

http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/

cool thanx

Now I gotta watch the archived video sometime

don't miss the wang li show on there either!! that guy is a boss.

The new Staff Benda Bilili album doesn't break any new ground, and some might find it too samey, but I love their Congolese rumba guitars and call & response vocals and harmonies

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, August 28, 2012 11:28 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark

this is pretty great! i must've missed it when you first mentioned but lots of fun

Yes, I love it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/13/arts/music/algerian-chaabi-musicians-reunite-in-the-band-el-gusto.html?src=recg

I read about these Jewish and Muslim chaabi musicians from Algeria reuniting for a show in France a long while ago somewhere, but now I see they're doing it again, and its in the NY Times. Interesting

That Acoustic Africa tour is coming. I like vocalist Dobet Gnahore

http://www.sharebeirut.net/en/program/zeid-and-maryam

Appearing at a Beirut conference as is DJ Rupture and others

Godfather of Lebanese underground music Zeid Hamdan, founder of the iconic band Soap Kills teams up with young Egyptian singer Maryam Saleh, known for her covers of Sheikh Imam, the famous satirical singer of 70’s Egypt.

Zeid came to Alexandria in 2010 and met Maryam. They quickly recorded together a few tracks in a room of Cairo. Then, they released the demo “Watan el Ak” (Nation of Chaos) in 2011, that epicts the current state of affairs in post-Mubarak Egypt.

This is a new Arabic electro-pop sound: Maryam’s powerful singing in Egyptian dialect merging with Zeid’s funny electro-pop loops. Songs burst with energy, making you both dance and think. You’re warned, Sheikh Imam goes electro.

http://www.theworld.org/2012/10/rita-persian-music/

Israeli singer born in Iran now singing Persian tunes

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/live-music-blogpost.aspx?post=c71527ae-401e-46f2-aa85-6ca0db31fb06#scpshrtu

Christgau liked Congolese band Staff Benda Bilili live as much as I did. Just saw their DC gig earlier tonight. Poor promotion meant that there were only 75 people there, but the band's sound and presentation was great. Guitars, home-made instruments, nice percussion, harmonies-- a fantastic hour and a half show.

are they doing an NYC play soon do you know?

Sorry, it looks like you missed their NYC show-- Thursday October 18th they were at Symphony Space in NYC, google is telling me. They are hitting the west coast next and then doing Europe. I still need to see that documentary about them. It's probably on netflix or something. Some cynics might say that like Congolese soukous and rumba from prior decades, their sound can get a tad repititious, but this is designed for dancing plus the harmonies and melodies do vary somewhat. Here's the rest of their North American tour:

23/10/2012US San Diego Universtity of California

24/10/2012US Los Angeles El Rey Theatre

25/10/2012US San FranciscoSlims

27/10/2012US SeattleTown Hall

28/10/2012CA Vancouver560 Club

They have not yet gotten the indie press acclaim that Amadou & Mariam got; so not too many 20-something indie fans were willing to pay the bucks in W. DC; and they're not "urban" enough in their musical sound to reach 20-something immigrants who like African danceclub music and rap. Although they have a young guy in the group.

i will scope

Wasn't Thomas Mapfumo just in NYC too?

I still need to check these afropopworldwide podcasts out-

HIP DEEP ANGOLA PART TWO is up, with the unwieldy title of 21st CENTURY URBAN ANGOLA: KIZOMBA, KUDURO, AFRO-HOUSE, AND BEYOND.

Was listening to Dobet Gnahore, sweet-voiced Coite de Ivoire resident and acoustic guitar strummer who is coming to North America as part of the Acoustic Africa tour with a bass player also from the Ivory Coast and another performer from Cameroon. A bit mellow, but when I saw Gnahore years ago she got more powerful vocally at times, and funky musically.

Wow, I think it was six years ago that I first heard Dobet Gnahore live, where she showed that she is much more than a stereotypical Putumayo artist making soothing, watered-down polite Afro-French folk.

Just got a copy of a new Analog Africa compilation, Diablos del Ritmo: The Colombian Melting Pot 1960-1985. Looks pretty great.

They do nice work. I have liked previous Afro-Colombian music I have heard and bet this one is great too

After five years, in which seven expeditions were made to Barranquilla, Analog Africa is honoured to present "Diablos del Ritmo," an anthology of - and tribute to - the immense sound of 1970s Colombia. Thousands of records were collected, boiling down to a colourfully diverse selection of tracks. Volume Two features an array of danceable tropical rhythms of Puya, Porro, Gaita, Cumbiamba, Mapalé, Chandéon

I don't know these terms used for the tropical rhythms on the album: Puya, Porro, Gaita, Cumbiamba, Mapalé, Chandéon, but I bet they sound funky

Persian live music week coming to DC:

Mon. Nov. 12th

Mighty Sam McLain (soul) with Mahsa Vahdat (Iranian/Persian) doing unique, powerful duets melding the two genres at the Atlas Theatre 1333 H St NE, Washington, DC 20002,
______________________________________________

Tues. Nov. 13

Rita (Israeli singer born in Iran who sings pop-traditional Persian songs in Farsi on her latest album) at Strathmore

__________________________________________________________
Thurs. Nov. 15

Mitra Sumatra (pre-revolutionary Iranian pop and funk) for free from 6 to 7 (and webcast) at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage and free at 10 at Tropicalia nightclub

I like the videos I've seen of McLain & Vahdat; and Rita's latest album

The McLain and Vahdat duets work better than one would think

Y'all should check 'em out on Youtube.

Acoustic Africa tomorrow night in W. DC with Dobet Gnahore and others.

The Acoustic Africa gig was great last night except for guest guitarist Leni Stern--overbearing with her West African meets Weather Report jazzy riffs; and wannabe Joni Mitchell vocals. The show dragged when she was onstage. She did not have the skills of awesome and largely unknown Cameroonian singer/guitarist/dancer Kareyce Fotso. Dobet Gnahore does not play guitar as I once thought, she's just a great singer/percussionist dancer. More flashy than Fotso. The bass player was from Zap Mama. Skilled as well. Small crowd cuz the artists are mostly unknown but still fun.

This is probably old news to most of you, but I just stumbled on this site covering African music (and more):

http://www.thisisafrica.me/

More of the Sa Dingding album turning up on youtube, though I suspect if the tracks I've posted already, all of which have more of an edge to them than this one, haven't already made you interested, this one definitely won't. Still, it's evidence of the variety on the album, I think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXsSox5WAvY

x-post-

Africa for a new generation

it's new to me

Speaking of African music coverage, my morning paper that used to regularly feature reviews of African artists appearing in town, has not covered Acoustic Africa; Staff Benda Bilili; or Orquesta Poly-Rhythmo. They feature a lot less live reviews, period, it seems. State of journalism 2012.

I need to find the time to listen to those afropop worldwide podcasts

Gonna go see Brazilian Gilberto Gil Saturday night. Been watching on youtube his 2010 forro tour stuff(with accordion player and fiddler) as he is bringing that tour to the US the for the first time.

And I'm listening to Persian stuff too: Rita and Mita Sumara and more. Need to also listen to Sa Dingding and stuff on that afrobeats thread

"See I like Beyoncé, but she dey with Jigga / I like Nicki, her yansh is bigger..." // D'BANJ - OLIVER TWIST // afrobeats in the charts

Also, I think you'd like the Zaki Ibrahim album (certainly more than the Sa Dingding album), and it's on Spotify.

malawi mouse boys album is worth a spin. also on spotify

Awesome, not sure it's strictly world music since I just stumbled on it, but it sure is international:

http://istanbulmusic.blogspot.com/2010/04/best-musicians-from-japan.html

Iranian singer Mahsat Vahdat, who as a female can't sing in public in Iran, was incredible last night dueting with soul/blues singer Mighty Sam McClain before a small crowd in DC. They made Farsi and English alternating verses work well together. She talked about being taught about in the "great Satan" and spoke about people locked up back in Iran (a country that is still her home). Both the music and the between-song conversation was fascinating

Poor Mahsa Vahdat, on an obscure Norwegian label, singing in an obscure to Americans style, and on her short little US tour ignored by NPR, NY Times, LA Times, Washington Post and others. But she did get some attention in the media in India for a gig she did there. Now she's on her way back to Tehran.

I definately liked Mahsa Vahadat the best of the three vocalists singing in Farsi last week in D.C. The Mitra Sumara Kennedy Center free gig is available via video online at the K. Ctr. Millennium Stage website. Her voice is a little too rough for me (for this style).

Vahdat

malawi mouse boys album is worth a spin. also on spotify

― We do live in a fallen, depraved world destined for the fire. (forksclovetofu), Friday, November 9, 2

They've got that Southern African gospelly feel. Nice, but it didn't blow me away on first listen.

Zaki Ibrahim is more than the neo-soul singer I thought she was.

Happy Thanksgiving, Rolling World Music Thread!

I made two Spotify playlists I thought might interest ppl here. The first is as many of the Songlines 50 essential African albums I could find on Spotify (with replacement albums for artists that Spotify didn't have the right album for): http://open.spotify.com/user/mordys/playlist/6sbOSvT7cRHiVKiMhmvQL3

The second is all the tracks I could find from an incomplete discography from Rumba on the River: A History of the Popular Music of Two Congos (which I was looking at bc of the current situation in Goma): http://open.spotify.com/user/mordys/playlist/5aSRWjfIu0dsgx4r0jHz1c

Thank you

Goma situation a mess (as is the Northern Mali situation).

Been going through some of the top Afropop albums. I really like the Staff Benda Bilili, still deciding re Amadou & Mariam and many others

Fri. 11/30 10p: Join us for a festive Afropop Worldwide ritual, as Georges Collinet sits down with Banning Eyre to mull over the best new releases of 2012.

We'll hear from K'Naan, Staff Benda Bilili, Sierra Leone's Refugee Allstars, Mokoomba, Ondatropica, Alex Cuba, The Very Best, Janka Nabay.... As usual, Georges and Banning will run out of time long before they run out of tunes

Not that I always agree with them, just putting this out there

http://www.afropop.org/wp/6228/stocking-stuffers-2012/

http://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news/in-news/neba-solo-carries-forth-musical-traditions-mali

http://www.theworld.org/2012/11/neba-solo-malis-balafon-master/

Harvard prof got Mali's Neba Solo to visit there and perform. PRI's The World says the conditions in northern Mali are still a mess. Apparently the French and the African Union are talking about a military effort to drive the radical fundamentalists out of the north, but it hasn't happened yet.

Meanwhile in the Congo, I see there's this ILE thread:

Congo crisis